THE Home Office’s dysfunctional culture must be confronted after it wasted £15.4 million on a derelict prison that could never be used to house asylum-seekers, a damning MPs’ report has found.

In its report published today, the public accounts commitee (PAC) said the department’s response to the disastrous acquisition of the former HMP Northeye site raised doubts over its ability to prevent such “an unacceptable waste of public money from happening again.”

The cross-party committee’s chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “The Home Office says it has learned the lessons from its disastrously managed acquisition of the Northeye site.

“These are lessons for which the taxpayer has paid a steep price.”

PAC said the Home Office ignored expert advice during its bid to buy the East Sussex estate in efforts to secure 1,400 bed spaces, bypassing processes to protect public money.

It paid more than double what had been offered for the site 12 months earlier when it completed the sale in September 2023, only to decide it was too dilapidated to house asylum-seekers.

MPs blamed the department’s culture of seeing money as a secondary concern, adding that it was unacceptable to have to repeat the warning from its report last year.

It cited the Northeye sale as among purchases of large accommodation sites for asylum-seekers that have gone drastically wrong and cost the public purse dearly.

Bibby Stockholm was one example detailed, after £34 million was spent on the barge which housed fewer migrants than expected before its contract ended in January, as well as playing host to Legionella bacteria.

And £60 million was spent on a site at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, which was scrapped before it opened.

The Home Office said it identified over 1,000 lessons from its acquisitions of large asylum accommodation sites, but committee members remain to be convinced it can put learning into practice.

Their report said: “Given that some of these ‘lessons’ should have been evident at the time, we are concerned about the Home Office’s ability to put that learning into practice and prevent such an unacceptable waste of public money from happening again.”

The Home Office now plans to transfer the Northeye to another department or sell it, MPs added.

They also flagged concerns that the department’s bid to cut the reliance on hotels to house asylum-seekers may lead to increased costs elsewhere, such as increased homelessness and pressure on local councils by driving up rental prices.

Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith said: “The last government’s ‘large sites’ programme has been an unmitigated disaster.

“The waste of public money is eye-watering, but the human impact of those sites that did open is even more costly.

“That we have treated those seeking sanctuary from some of the world’s worst horrors in this shameful way marks a dark period in the UK’s history.”

One Life to Live founder Nicola David said: “This report is a very welcome, but truly damning indictment of the Home Office’s disregard for due process, public accountability and financial governance, let alone for humanitarian concerns.

“The Home Office has a culture of arrogance and heavy-handedness, and this must stop — for everyone’s sake.”

The group also called on the government to commit to resettling at least 5,000 refugees annually, saying a 2019 pledge under the previous Conservative government to help the most vulnerable had never been met.

Group co-chairs Lord Alf Dubs and Labour MP Laura Kyrke-Smith said that safe and legal routes should be “combined with the current government’s enforcement measures and efforts to increase our search and rescue capabilities.

“The current processes are overly complex, restrictive and slow, causing, among many other things, prolonged separation of families at a time when they most need to be together.”

They highlighted a “stark difference” for those who came to Britain under the Ukraine schemes compared with much smaller numbers under those for Afghanistan. 

Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst at the Refugee Council said: “This report lays bare yet another costly failure by the previous government, which wasted millions of pounds on an unsuitable site while failing to provide humane and appropriate accommodation for people seeking asylum.

”The Home Office at that time prioritised appearing tough on asylum over making well-planned, effective decisions — at the expense of both the public purse and the wellbeing of refugees.”

The Home Office has been contacted for comment.